A living body measuring apparatus includes a plurality of electrodes each of which is structured to make contact with a part of a living body; a current source connected to the electrodes; a voltage measuring unit connected to the electrodes; a control unit connected to the current source and the voltage measuring unit; and a display unit connected to the control unit. The control unit instructs the display unit to display the part of the living body to which an electric current is fed to the current source via the associated electrodes. The control unit further instructs the display unit to display the part of the living body of which voltage is measured by the voltage measuring unit on the associated electrodes.
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8. A living body measuring apparatus comprising:
a plurality of electrodes, each of which is for making contact with one of a plurality of parts of a living body; a current source connected to said electrodes; a voltage measuring unit connected to said electrodes; a control unit connected to said current source and said voltage measuring unit; and a display unit connected to said control unit; wherein the control unit is for calculating values of a plurality of health parameters for each of the plurality of parts of the living body based on the measured voltage; and wherein said control unit is for instructing said display unit to display a representation of the plurality of parts of the living body and to simultaneously display the calculated values of all of the health parameters corresponding to one displayed part of the living body.
1. A living body measuring apparatus comprising:
a plurality of electrodes, each of which is for making contact with one of a plurality of parts of a living body; a current source connected to said electrodes; a voltage measuring unit connected to said electrodes; a control unit connected to said current source and said voltage measuring unit; and a display unit connected to said control unit; wherein the control unit is for calculating a value of one or more health parameters for each of the plurality of parts of the living body based on the measured voltage; and wherein said control unit is for instructing said display unit to display a representation of the plurality of parts of the living body and to simultaneously display the calculated value of one of the health parameters corresponding to each respective displayed part of the living body.
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This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/684,792, filed Oct. 10, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,481.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a living body measuring apparatus for measuring the condition of each part of a living body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many of the living body measuring apparatus currently available provide a function for indicating the passed time interval or the remaining time interval for the measurement or for displaying a simplified chart to indicate the progress of measurement by a bar code and the like.
Such conventional living body measuring apparatus generally indicate the entire progress of measurement. However, in more complicated measuring apparatus for measuring each of the parts of the living body in turn, due to longer time period of, for example, a few minutes required for measurement, it is unknown for a person under test what part of the body is now being measured. Therefore, the person under test feels a significantly longer period of time for the measurement than actual. In the extreme case it may happen that the person under test feels some misgivings about whether the measurement is truly proceeding or not, while seeing the display of passed time interval, and as the result, he stops the measuring apparatus, irrespective of in the course of measurement.
The present invention solves such problems in the prior art by providing a new and improved measuring apparatus in which a person under test is not aware of progress in time for measurement and he can know which parts of the body are now being measured.
In view of the above, the present invention provides a living body measuring apparatus, comprising:
a plurality of electrodes each of which is structured to make contact with a part of a living body;
a current source connected to said electrodes;
a voltage measuring unit connected to said electrodes;
a control unit connected to said current source and said voltage measuring unit; and
a display unit connected to said control unit,
whereby said control unit instructs said display unit to display the part of the living body to which an electric current is fed by said current source via the associated electrodes.
The living body measuring apparatus further comprises a switching unit, whereby said switching unit selects which electrodes the electric current is fed to. The control unit changes over the part of the body displayed on the display unit in response to the operation of said switching unit.
In another aspect the present invention provides a living body measuring apparatus, comprising:
a plurality of electrodes each of which is structured to make contact with a part of a living body;
a current source connected to said electrodes;
a voltage measuring unit connected to said electrodes;
a control unit connected to said current source and said voltage measuring unit; and
a display unit connected to said control unit,
whereby said control unit instructs said display unit to display the part of the living body of which voltage is measured by said voltage measuring unit on the associated electrodes.
The living body measuring apparatus further comprises a switching unit, whereby said switching unit selects the electrodes on which the voltage is measured. The control unit changes over the part of the body displayed on the display unit in response to the operation of said switching unit.
Further according to the present invention the parts of the living body that the measurement has already been done or is now being performed or is to be performed next may be displayed on the display unit with a solid line, a broken line or a point-dot line. In another embodiment the parts of the living body that the measurement is now being performed may be displayed on the display unit with a broken line that moves in one way. In further embodiment all parts of the living body may be displayed on the display unit in rectangular blocks and some of the blocks corresponding to the parts that the measurement is now being performed may be displayed with a dark shading.
Now, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
A measuring apparatus according to the present invention operates to switch a plurality of electrodes by a switch unit and to display a part of a body on which the measurement is now being performed.
The measurement apparatus further operates to display the parts of the body on which the measurement has already been done and is now being performed.
The measurement apparatus further operates to display the parts of the body on which the measurement has already been done, is now being performed and is to be performed next.
Then an operation of the measuring apparatus 1 according to the present invention will be described hereunder with reference to flow charts of
In step S3 the routing enters a body weight measurement mode. As shown in
In step S9 the electrode switch 10 is operated in response to the command from the control unit 13 so that the current source 11 feeds AC current to the electrodes 3a, 4a and the voltage measurement unit 12 measures the voltage across the electrodes 3b, 4b. The measured voltage is fed to the control unit 13 for calculating the electrical impedance. As shown in
In step S13 the right leg of the person is measured by feeding the electric current to the electrodes 3a, 4a and measuring the voltage across the electrodes 9b, 4b, as shown in
In step S14 the left leg of the person is measured by feeding the electric current to the electrodes 4a, 3a and measuring the voltage across the electrodes 3b, 8b, as shown in
In step S15 the right arm of the person is measured by feeding the electric current to the electrodes 9a, 8a and measuring the voltage across the electrodes 4b, 9b, as shown in
In step S16 the left arm of the person is measured by feeding the electric current to the electrodes 8a, 9a and measuring the voltage across the electrodes 8b, 3b, as shown in
In step S17 the main body of the person is measured by feeding the electric current to the electrodes 8a, 3a and measuring the voltage across the electrodes 9b, 4b, as shown in
After completion of the measurement for each part of the body, the results of the measurement are displayed in step S18. Then in step S19 the decision is made whether the print key is depressed or not. If not, the routine returns to step S2, but if so, the routine proceeds to step S20 wherein the printer 6 is operated to print. Thereafter, the routine returns to step S2.
Referring to
If the display selector switch is depressed while displaying the numerical data, the answer of step S31 is "Yes". Then in step S32 the display counter is increased by "1" so that the answer of step S33 is "No" and the subroutine proceeds to step S37. In this step the answer thereof is "Yes" and then in step S38 the whole body model of the person under test and the electrical impedance for each of the parts are displayed on the display unit 16, as shown in
If the display selector switch is depressed while displaying the electrical impedance in this manner, the subroutine proceeds from step S31 via steps S32, S33, S37 to step S40. The answer of step S40 is "Yes" and the subroutine proceeds to step S41 where the whole body model of the person under test and the body fat percentage for each of the parts are displayed on the display unit 16, as shown in
If the display selector switch is depressed while displaying the body fat percentage in this manner, the subroutine proceeds from step S31 via steps S32, S33, S37, S40 to step S43. The answer of step S43 is "Yes" and the subroutine proceeds to step S44 where the whole body model of the person under test and the body fat amount for each of the parts are displayed on the display unit 16, as shown in
If the display selector switch is depressed while displaying the body fat amount in this manner, the subroutine proceeds from step S31 via steps S32, S33, S37, S40, S43 to step S46. The answer of step S46 is "Yes" and the subroutine proceeds to step S47 where the whole body model of the person under test and the partial muscle amount for each of the parts are displayed on the display unit 16, as shown in
If the display selector switch is depressed while displaying the partial muscle amount in this manner, the subroutine proceeds from step S31 via steps S32, S33, S37, S40, S43, S46 to step S49. In this step the display counter is reset to "0" and then the subroutine returns to step S35. Because of the display counter being "0", the subroutine proceeds from step S33 to step S34 for numerical data display.
If the part selector switch is depressed while displaying the data for the right hand of the person, the answer of step S58 is "Yes". Then in step S52 the part counter is incremented to "2". At this moment the answer of step S53 is "No", but the answer to step S56 is "Yes". Therefore, the subroutine proceeds to step S57 where the whole body model of the person under test and all the measurement data for the part, in this case the right leg, of the person are displayed on the display unit 16, as shown in
In the same manner the measurement data for the left leg, and the head and main body of the person under test are displayed, as shown in
In the embodiment as stated above the part of the body being measured at that moment (or the measuring path) is indicated by a broken line on the whole body model of the person under test. Alternatively the broken line may be moved in one way, like a telop, for helping to make the person unaware of how long the time has passed.
In the embodiment as shown in
FIGS. 12(a) to 12(i) show yet further embodiments in which the whole body model of the person under test is illustrated using a rectangular block for each of the measured parts and any block corresponding to the part being measured at that time has a dark shading. In this case the construction of display unit and the development of software can be simplified, as compared with the embodiments in
In the embodiment as described above the measurement for nine (9) parts of the body has been described, by way of example. However, the present invention is not limited to such number of parts of the body, but it covers the case where less number of the parts of the body is measured. Furthermore, it is also within the scope of the present invention that a color display is used to more clearly show the progress of the measurement to the person under test.
It is apparent from the foregoing that the present invention has provided a new and improved measuring apparatus, comprising: a plurality of electrodes each of which is structured to make contact with a part of a living body; a current source connected to said electrodes; a voltage measuring unit connected to said electrodes; a control unit connected to said current source and said voltage measuring unit; and a display unit connected to said control unit, whereby said control unit instructs said display unit to display the part of the living body to which an electric current is fed by said current source via the associated electrodes.
The present invention is significantly effective in that a person under test can be afforded a sense of security because the person is made unaware of the time that has passed for the measurement and the person knows what part of the body is being measured at that time.
Further according to the present invention the part of the body already measured and the part of the body being measured at that time can be displayed. This can clearly indicate the progress of the measurement to the person under test.
Furthermore according to the present invention the part of the body already measured, the part of the body being measured at that time and the part of the body to be measured next can be displayed. This can made the person under test extremely unaware of the time that has passed for the measurement.
Komatsu, Yoshichika, Sasaki, Yoshitsugu
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